[Siri]

Originally Posted by Pretzel

On the plus side, however, many (if not most/all) fighter pilots actually have STEM degrees because a majority of them are recruited from the Air Force Academy, which places heavy emphasis on STEM degree programs...Air Force Academy graduates likely have an advantage here since they have aviation experience

This isn't much of a CD post, but since we're giving what may end up being practical career advice, I feel the need to correct some inaccuracies in this post:

• The Academy is not the majority source of new Air Force fighter pilots. In fact it's currently not even the plurality source, coming in several percentage points behind ROTC. (In FY14 and FY15, ROTC was 45% to USAFA's 42% for active duty lieutenant and captain fighter pilots.) This ratio varies among higher ranks, but these officers started in a different era, and retention isn't directly related to flying--higher ranks don't fly as much as younger ones.
• The STEM degree question is a bit fuzzier, since it's not always clear what constitutes a STEM major. STEM is certainly popular, but AFA actually had significantly fewer STEM fighter pilots than ROTC in the year checked (45% to 68% for lieutenants and captains in FY14 as definitely STEM). There's no regulated reason for this, though, so it'd change year to year. Overall AFA majors are about an even split STEM versus not.
• Academy graduates do not inherently have any aviation experience at all. The Academy provides some great flight opportunities (mostly gliders) on a voluntary/competitive basis, as do other universities and external programs. I know ROTC guys that went into initial training with multiple civilian pilot licenses and years instructing and flying civilian missions.
• Separately, of course the Army and CG have helicopter pilots (both with college degrees and without) and the Navy [Edit: meaning Navy and Marines, grouped because the commissioning sources dovetail] has a variety. Also don't write off airlift so fast; special ops airlift have some crazy low-level flight jobs. And again, if you're looking for a civilian career, helicopter medevacs are way up there.